Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: January 19 ~ 25, 2020

[ReneeT]

Morning All; hope everyone is staying warm out there! We've got 9* F temps and a wind chill of -14* F; like to froze my fanny off when I stopped after work at the grocery store, and at Rural King to pick up bird feed! As I was in the parking lot at work waiting for the van to warm up a bit before leaving, I thought 'Okay, this is a day that I would shelter in place in an emergency situation." because even with all my winter emergency gear that I keep in the van, it would be one cold and miserable 26 mile walk home - especially since the wind was out of the west and that was the direction I'd be going.

I did pick up some marked down wool blend socks at Rural King - 2 pair each of Browning brand for Hubby and myself, 2 pair each of Lincoln Outfitters brand for the grandsons; and then one pair of Polar Extreme Acrylic/spandex/other fiber thermal socks for myself. I have a doctor's appointment in that town on Monday, so will stop back in then to see if they've been marked down any further.

At the grocery store, I used a combo of store sale, store coupons, and manufacturer's coupons to pick up 3 packages of paper towels for daughter, and three bags of shredded cheese for myself - it came out to $3.29 pkg for the paper towels and $1.29 for the cheese, so it was a decent deal. I've got some frozen bell pepper 'boats' (the lobes of the peppers); will pull them out to thaw along with a package of meatloaf mix and make stuffed peppers for supper - sprinkling them with a bit of the shredded cheese shortly before taking them out of the oven.

Well, I'm about to fall asleep at the computer, and my heavy fleece throw is looking pretty darned inviting, so I'm gonna post this and go see if I can catch a bit of sleep. You all take care out there - don't let the crazies make YOU crazy too!

 

[nomifyle]

ReneeT, you find the best bargains. I don't provide anything for children and DH and I are well stocked on just about everything so I don;t look for bargains. Fortunately we don't get much in the way of really cold weather here in Louisiana, but we could stay warm in very cold weather if need be. When DH moved here 6 years ago from Illinois he had all kinds of very cold weather gear that has been in storage ever since.

Judy

 

[mecoastie]

Trying to get the cupola on my sugar shack this weekend. Big prep is getting my ham stuff squared a way finally. I have had the license and a lot of gear for years but never got it organized. A lot of it is old so I am upgrading and hope to have it all set up in a couple of weeks. Planning out the garden and hope to get the soap made this week.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We're slowly making progress on all the damage to our property from the tornadoes and high winds we got last Saturday. The tree is about 95% cut up, but none of it has been split and stacked. Limbs are still scattered across our property that have yet to be piled up and burned. Direct TV serviceman came out and installed a new satellite for us, but we still have no propane. Our yard has to dry out, so that the guys can bring in a heavy lifter to pick up the tank, and set it back on it's foundation. The lines need repairing, too. Right now, our yard is still mush from all the rain we've had since Saturday. Cary still has to replace some of the cedar siding on our house that was damaged by the tree, too.

Hopefully, by the end of this coming week, things will pretty much be back to normal for us if we don't get any more rain.

 

[nomifyle]

After 5 years and thousands of dollars spent on feed, we are finally out of the pig business. Thanks to a wild boar we ended up with 18 baby pigs from two sows. DH was having a hard time keeping the little pigs fenced in. He was so disgusted with it he put out a sign for free pigs. A couple stopped by yesterday and wanted a few. They called this morning and wanted them all including the two sows. The man that wanted most of them and the sows is a hog hunter and he breeds them. These folks have come and gone and no more pigs. I'm sad but I know its for the best. They are hard to take care of when you are old and tired. We have chickens and goats and plan on keeping them. DH makes a little money selling the baby goats once a year.

Judy

 

[20Gauge]

We're slowly making progress on all the damage to our property from the tornadoes and high winds we got last Saturday. The tree is about 95% cut up, but none of it has been split and stacked. Limbs are still scattered across our property that have yet to be piled up and burned. Direct TV serviceman came out and installed a new satellite for us, but we still have no propane. Our yard has to dry out, so that the guys can bring in a heavy lifter to pick up the tank, and set it back on it's foundation. The lines need repairing, too. Right now, our yard is still mush from all the rain we've had since Saturday. Cary still has to replace some of the cedar siding on our house that was damaged by the tree, too.

Hopefully, by the end of this coming week, things will pretty much be back to normal for us if we don't get any more rain.

I feel for you. We had similar issues when the flooding came through. It took a while to dry out and clean things up. Good luck!

 

[20Gauge]

I picked up a 10 ton floor jack the other day for the right price (free). Now all I have to do is fix it. LOL

Shouldn't be too difficult. Looks like a pin / rod fell out and needs to be replaced so that the jack can be pumped and released.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I feel for you. We had similar issues when the flooding came through. It took a while to dry out and clean things up. Good luck!

Yeah, things are a mess here with not much being done because of all the rain we're still getting. The cotton fields around us have so much water standing in them that they look like lakes instead of fields. Most of the cotton has been brought in, but there is still some that has rotted in the fields.

 

[Marseydoats]

Walmart has just been kinda scary my last 2 trips. The first time I just figured that it was the week after Christmas and they hadn't had time to re-stock anything. It literally looked like a herd of cattle had stampeded thru the store. There was random merchandise sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisles, Last trip wasn't any better.
The pain relief aisle was completely wiped out. They had a few bottles of store brand stuff and some Bayer aspirin, but that was it. Two ladies were standing there fussing because there was nothing to buy. I couldn't find any bar soap and I walked over half the store twice. They had moved it to where the laundry detergent is, but it's not there anymore. They only had 13 cans of the cats food, and I had to get down and hunt for those. They only had 6 cans of Spam and part of them were bent so badly I wouldn't buy them. Large areas of the store are just empty aisles. I only spent $60 because they just didn't have anything I needed.
Came home and ordered everything online and most if it has arrived and been put away. Still waiting on a case of cat food.

 

[20Gauge]

Walmart has just been kinda scary my last 2 trips. The first time I just figured that it was the week after Christmas and they hadn't had time to re-stock anything. It literally looked like a herd of cattle had stampeded thru the store. There was random merchandise sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisles, Last trip wasn't any better.
The pain relief aisle was completely wiped out. They had a few bottles of store brand stuff and some Bayer aspirin, but that was it. Two ladies were standing there fussing because there was nothing to buy. I couldn't find any bar soap and I walked over half the store twice. They had moved it to where the laundry detergent is, but it's not there anymore. They only had 13 cans of the cats food, and I had to get down and hunt for those. They only had 6 cans of Spam and part of them were bent so badly I wouldn't buy them. Large areas of the store are just empty aisles. I only spent $60 because they just didn't have anything I needed.
Came home and ordered everything online and most if it has arrived and been put away. Still waiting on a case of cat food.

This is one of the economic indicators I do watch in the real world. (Not the news world). We also have seen the issue with cat food being not stocked. Not sure why.

As for the rest, it is a case of shelves on the "value" end of things just not being stocked as there is no stock available when they needed it. Yes the stores are ordering it, but the vendors are sending it first to those who pay more. What is left goes to the other customers. It is even beginning to affect Wal Mart.

 

[moldy]

Picked up our last steer from the locker, so as my usual, there are 2 roasters full of stew meat and soup bones cooking tonight. They will get canned tomorrow. I also have a couple pots of good marrow bones simmering on the woodstove with reishi mushroom, burdock, and thyme added. I'll can them up (once I"ve reduced them quite a bit) for medicinal beef bone broth.

I"m sure I have complained about this before (like every year), but insurance is such a racket!!! Ours has gone up almost two grand with less coverage (and no tickets). The car insurance stayed about the same but property insurance has skyrocketed. DH is concerned how we will manage this after we retire. Our house is paid off, so we could do with out homeowners (I know it's a gamble, but honestly will they even pay much??), but I don't know that we could do without liability if someone was to come on the ranch and get hurt. We use an insurance broker, so he is supposedly comparing rates for us.... but I do notice that all his kids go to a state university that is not cheap, so he's making money somewhere. Sigh... it's either required by law or by my own fears of losing everything we've worked so hard for. Any suggestions from all of you?

 

[Illini Warrior]

Picked up our last steer from the locker, so as my usual, there are 2 roasters full of stew meat and soup bones cooking tonight. They will get canned tomorrow. I also have a couple pots of good marrow bones simmering on the woodstove with reishi mushroom, burdock, and thyme added. I'll can them up (once I"ve reduced them quite a bit) for medicinal beef bone broth.

I"m sure I have complained about this before (like every year), but insurance is such a racket!!! Ours has gone up almost two grand with less coverage (and no tickets). The car insurance stayed about the same but property insurance has skyrocketed. DH is concerned how we will manage this after we retire. Our house is paid off, so we could do with out homeowners (I know it's a gamble, but honestly will they even pay much??), but I don't know that we could do without liability if someone was to come on the ranch and get hurt. We use an insurance broker, so he is supposedly comparing rates for us.... but I do notice that all his kids go to a state university that is not cheap, so he's making money somewhere. Sigh... it's either required by law or by my own fears of losing everything we've worked so hard for. Any suggestions from all of you?

in regard to insurance - might want to research it yourself and concentrate on regional insurance companies vs the nationals that are including you with their CA earthquake and FL hurricane policy holders >>>>

 

[nomifyle]

Went to Walmart today, I noticed how small the dried bean section is, maybe 4 feet wide. The bean selection was poor, although lots of pintos and lentils. I'm really good with both of those beans, just put two 3 five gallon buckets in my she shed, 2 lentils, and one yellow split peas. I was looking for a bag of green split peas, although I do have a good supply of them though. The flour selection section was small with a poor selection. Not one bag of the flour you don't have to put baking powder in, I never use it myself, but most everyone around here does. The tortilla section was close to being bare.

I watched a youtube video on low cost cooking and the lady used canned great value mixed vegetables in one dish she was cooking. I've never cared for canned mixed vegetables, I think the brand was vegesol and it was disgusting. This mixture in the great value brand looks like the mixture in frozen mixed vegetables, I bought 6 cans at 98 cents a can. I'm trying to expand the variety of meals I cook.

I also picked up one of the commodities that we get. It was a strange assorsment of items. 3 bags of beans and one bag of rice and an actual variety of canned vegetables. There were a couple of bottles of tomato juice, I may add some vodka to one of them. Also there were 8 bags of oranges, DH said they are sweet.

I did order 16 cans of lentils from Vitacost, only place I can find them for a dollar.

My shop at walmart didn't really include anything for food storage except replacing some things I've used lately.

Judy

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Went to Walmart today, I noticed how small the dried bean section is, maybe 4 feet wide. The bean selection was poor, although lots of pintos and lentils. I'm really good with both of those beans, just put two 3 five gallon buckets in my she shed, 2 lentils, and one yellow split peas. I was looking for a bag of green split peas, although I do have a good supply of them though. The flour selection section was small with a poor selection. Not one bag of the flour you don't have to put baking powder in, I never use it myself, but most everyone around here does. The tortilla section was close to being bare.

I watched a youtube video on low cost cooking and the lady used canned great value mixed vegetables in one dish she was cooking. I've never cared for canned mixed vegetables, I think the brand was vegesol and it was disgusting. This mixture in the great value brand looks like the mixture in frozen mixed vegetables, I bought 6 cans at 98 cents a can. I'm trying to expand the variety of meals I cook.

I also picked up one of the commodities that we get. It was a strange assorsment of items. 3 bags of beans and one bag of rice and an actual variety of canned vegetables. There were a couple of bottles of tomato juice, I may add some vodka to one of them. Also there were 8 bags of oranges, DH said they are sweet.

I did order 16 cans of lentils from Vitacost, only place I can find them for a dollar.

My shop at walmart didn't really include anything for food storage except replacing some things I've used lately.

Judy

I hear ya, Judy on the dry bean section at Walmart. I don't have a lot of dry beans in storage. I like the canned beans and peas better. But, I love those dry baby lima beans cooked in with big chunks of ham, so I buy them occasionally. My Walmart had none the last time I went. All they had in their very small section were dry lentils, pintos, and split peas.

On those canned mixed veggies, Mom gave me a very simple recipe years ago that uses those. I make it all the time with food from my pantry. It's one of those quick and easy meals that one might make on a weekly/biweekly basis if a SHTF event happens. It's called Chicken Noodle Casserole. I also use the canned mixed veggies for making homemade Beef Veggie Soup.

I'm really not adding to my stock of food. I'm only replacing what I use on a biweekly basis. My problem, which I hate, is while I'm replacing all things "canned", I can only find them in those awful pop top lids! I'm having to pay a lot more for the brands that don't have those. All of those new cans really add up in cost!

 

[nomifyle]

Yes, I look for the solid lids on cans also, The mandarin orange cans I replaced yesterday all have the pop tops. Usually walmart brand of canned foods have the pop tops, but the mixed vegetables had the solid lid. I opted for Bush's black beans at 1.00 a can by passing walmart brand at 50 cents a can. Since I've purchased many many cans of food at dollar tree at 1.00 a can I don't consider 1.00 too bad a price. Of course I do like to find better prices. Canned food at Sav A lot is usually 89 cents each. I have spent quite a lot of money in the last 6 months on canned and even boxed food and have a lot of stored canned and boxed foods. For years and years I turned my nose up at boxed processed food, but decided to add it to my food stores to add variety.

I grew up eating dried beans and peas so that type has always been big in my pantry. Although DH is not a huge fan and its so easy to open a can. I have almost enough canned chicken for two cans a week for a year.

Judy

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Yes, I look for the solid lids on cans also, The mandarin orange cans I replaced yesterday all have the pop tops. Usually walmart brand of canned foods have the pop tops, but the mixed vegetables had the solid lid. I opted for Bush's black beans at 1.00 a can by passing walmart brand at 50 cents a can. Since I've purchased many many cans of food at dollar tree at 1.00 a can I don't consider 1.00 too bad a price. Of course I do like to find better prices. Canned food at Sav A lot is usually 89 cents each. I have spent quite a lot of money in the last 6 months on canned and even boxed food and have a lot of stored canned and boxed foods. For years and years I turned my nose up at boxed processed food, but decided to add it to my food stores to add variety.

I grew up eating dried beans and peas so that type has always been big in my pantry. Although DH is not a huge fan and its so easy to open a can. I have almost enough canned chicken for two cans a week for a year.

Judy

Yeah, all the canned foods I have in storage are solid lids. That's why I'm not replacing them with the pop top ones. I don't trust the seal on them. I am still using canned foods that are way past their use by date (2-4 yrs.). All still in good shape. I'm paying a $1/can, too, which is way more than the pop tops. It is what it is, though, I'll pay the price as long as I can afford to. I wish we still had a Save A Lot here where we live. We had one, but it went out of business several years ago. I loved shopping there.

Like you, I'd rather just open a can of pinto beans, etc., instead of having to have more water and a long cook time with the dry version. In a SHTF event where we would have to rely on rain water to cook with, water might get scarce, so with canned beans, no extra water will have to be added other than what's already in the can. Same with other canned veggies.

WOW! You're doing great on the canned chicken! I've got enough for one meal a week for a year. Same with tuna, smoked ham, SPAM, BBQ pulled pork, ground beef (which is in my freezer), and lots of canned chili and soups/stews. It took me quite a while to build up to all of that, though. Rotation is still the key, and eat regularly out of our pantry stores.

The reason I still have so many cans of different things that are past their use by date is that we weren't eating out of our pantry. Now that we've started doing that on a regular basis, I'm quickly using that all up.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Good news/bad news kind of thing. Have move so far away from home that even the the most ardent liberal relatives will not be able to reach us looking for sanctuary. Bad news is the move had us leaving with basically just the clothes on our backs. So I'm starting over from scratch.

Good news DH got a better paying job. Bad news we are living in a very liberal area.

Any who, with the coronavirus looming on the horizon so to speak I picked up: N95's, latex gloves and some shelf safe food. Found some Stove Top on sale. That's good for helping to getting other less than appetizing shelf stable foods off the plate and into people. Found that out back packing the AT. All our OTC is fresh. Picked up scripts, so they're up to date too. That includes eye glasses. Everyone got a clean bill of health from the dentist just before the move so that preventive maintenance has been taken care of.

 

[COelf]

I went to wal-mart today after DH's doctor's appointment. Picked up some Sambucol. I bought more soup in case we get sick and don't want to eat. I looked for vitamins with iron. Nature Made prenatal vitamins were the only brand with iron they had. I looked at every brand. Dh is anemic and seems to stay that way to a degree. It will not hurt me to have some iron but I have never been anemic. Having some vitamins to take with iron may help. I bought the only bottle they had. I picked us up some sweat pants on sale for $5. They are nice for lounging around the house or sleeping in. If we get sick they will come in handy. I bought some castor oil to rub on the large mole in the middle of my back. It gets very dry and scaly at times and castor oil is the only oil that helps. One day I will have it taken off but right now it seems like a pain in the er "back" to go to the doctor for an inconvenience. I stocked up on cat food and doggie food in case we do not feel like going to the store or we get sick.
The strange thing I saw was the store only had about 2 packages of everything on the shelves. I bought the last 2 Sambucol, the last 6 pairs of sweat pants in 2 sizes, the last 2 soups, etc. I picked up some adult diapers just in case. The cashier and I were talking about the Sambucol and she wanted to know if it worked. I told her yes it did if it were taken early enough in a virus. She said people were talking about the "Chinese flu" today.
Tomorrow I will go through the first aid kits and see what I need to put in the medicine closet. I know I have plenty of masks of all kinds, gloves, disinfectants but may need more fever reducers. I can get that at the Dollar Store. I know I am low on Lugol's and need to find a source to order some. I use it in a nebulizer with sterile water. 1 drop Lugol's to sterile water. Keeps my lungs clear but I don't recommend anyone else doing it unless you really know what you are doing. The first aid kit in the pickup is a PIA to go through since I have so much packed into a small duffel. Oh well I know it needs to be done to throw away older medications or rotate them inside.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Thank you COelf. I'd forgotten I don't have a working vaporizer.

 

[nomifyle]

Went back to walmart today, I'd forgotten the pie crusts I had on my list the other day and I restocked my bottled water stash. This time I bought the larger packages of walmart water instead of the 24 pack. I just about killed myself picking those cases up, fortunately there was a walmart worker in the parking lot that put them in the back of the truck for me. And we used the tractor scoop to get them from the truck to the front door. The are much easier getting them at chest level than picking them up off the floor. I'm also going to clean up my berkey filters, although I can't stand the taste of the water from the berkey.

I'm not sure which face masks we have but they don't have the little thing on the front. If we are in a situation that we have to wear a mask, we'll wear two, I have a big supply of them and gloves.

The only think I can think of is I didn't top off the gas tank in the truck, but its 3/4 full, although we can top off from the gas cans.. We are good on everything else in case we have to hunker down.

Judy

 

[Marseydoats]

I got a late Christmas present of a Publix gift certificate. I consider it an overpriced yuppie store and I had never been in it. Their prices were totally outrageous. I got a bag of cat food and some Spam.
Since I'm having so much trouble getting canned cat food I decided that I would add the animals food to my 52 can challenge. I ordered 2 more cases of food and then I will actually have 52 cans for a couple days.
The flu has me worried enough that I ordered some Sambucol. We have N95 masks and I have a pack of unopened Ultrasorb sheets. If I get that sick I usually just sleep on the bathroom floor anyway. Hoping that it misses all of us!

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We're not due to make another trip into town, until the first of next month, which is payday. If this virus gets out of hand here in the States, I will be making an emergency run before then. I need to pick up more latex gloves and surgical masks. We have some N95's, but I'd like to keep regular surgical masks on hand, too. I've checked all my medical supplies, and I think I've got everything else covered. I don't have a vaporizer, but have 4 jars of Vick's Salve. I hope I'm not overlooking something! We plan to self quarantine if this thing gets anywhere near us.

 

[WanderLore]

same here Southern. first of month will stock up. medical preps need it badly.

Nomifyle: Here is very simple pie crust recipe: 2 cups all purpose flour. 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 milk. i use coconut oil and box shelf stable milk.
dump in bowl and work around. dump on wax paper and double it over and run a roller over it.

it makes very good and easy crust or pastry thing. i do it with one hand due to my shoulder.

i'm reading so much and some of these reports sound way over crazy. wonder how to verify.

 

[SAPPHIRE]

wondering about the reality check of Wuhan virus too....like who's going over to check it out????!

Hoping dh comes home from rehab before virus manifests near us, though allegedly there is a report of at least one nearby hospital with a could-be infected person...….dh's rehab has had a GI virus and flu virus floating around for last two weeks, but dh has been drinking colloidal silver & pure water plus liposomal c and staying in room....no problems so far...

I hope the "reports" are highly exaggerated...………...

 

[nomifyle]

same here Southern. first of month will stock up. medical preps need it badly.

Nomifyle: Here is very simple pie crust recipe: 2 cups all purpose flour. 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 milk. i use coconut oil and box shelf stable milk.
dump in bowl and work around. dump on wax paper and double it over and run a roller over it.

it makes very good and easy crust or pastry thing. i do it with one hand due to my shoulder.

i'm reading so much and some of these reports sound way over crazy. wonder how to verify.

Thank you for the recipe and I'm so glad to see that someone else uses coconut oil and box shelf stable milk in their cooking. If a recipe calls for oil I almost agonize about whether its okay to use coconut oil. I stopped buying olive oil a few years back when there was so much bruhaa about so many olive oil brands not being pure olive oil and I wouldn't specifically have used it in baking recipes anyway, mainly I just didn't bake. I have not had any kind of vegetable oil in my kitchens for years and years. I did buy some several years back to use in an oil lamp in an emergency. I was never one to fry things in all my years of cooking.
I don't think there is anyway these old bones could sleep on the floor, and besides my floors are hard to keep clean because I live in the sand hills, pretty much like living in a sand box. I do have sleeping bag mats to sleep on if I had to sleep on the floor..I have many many sets of sheets, I always kept a selection and DH's beloved first wife was the same way.

I've been fairly well prepped for most things for a long time.

Judy

 

[WanderLore]

Hey sweetheart, i use coconut oil for everything. no other oil in house. i even use it on toast. in the dogs food. anything that calls for oil. i'm trying to stay on keto. boy its hard at times.
pretty well stocked but have to work on medical supplies. will do that first of the month.
i grew up in south so oh yes i understand the sand, and clay. uuuggg. wood floors are a must